Girl, 6, survives fall from 6th storey

Two days after a seven-year-old boy fell to his death at Aljunied Crescent after being left alone at home, a six-year-old girl plunged six storeys from a unit at Yishun - and survived.

Neighbours found her lying conscious but in pain on a grass patch at Block 459, Yishun Avenue 11, on Saturday evening.

Her parents were not home at the time and realised she had fallen only when they returned to the block with their shopping.

Neighbours said the girl was an only child.

The police were alerted at 7.42pm and the girl was taken to KK Women's and Children's Hospital in an ambulance, said a spokesman for the Singapore Civil Defence Force.

The New Paper understands that the girl is in stable condition.

Miss Kamalia, 17, a student who lives on a second-storey unit above the spot where the girl fell, said she had arrived home with her mother at about 7.30pm when they heard a commotion downstairs.

Said Miss Kamalia, who goes by one name: "It is usually noisy, but we heard people shouting loudly. My mother looked out of our living room window and cried out to me that there was a Chinese girl lying on the ground downstairs.

"When I looked out the window, I saw that the girl's nose was bleeding. She was in pyjamas and holding a small pillow and a stuffed toy in her arms."

Miss Kamalia and her mother rushed downstairs. They found the girl sobbing softly and groaning in pain. Miss Kamalia's mother, Madam Rashida, 49, asked the girl where she lived. The girl replied that she lived on the sixth storey.

Said Miss Kamalia: "In my panic, I didn't hear her correctly and went to the fourth storey to look for her parents."

Another resident, a 27-year-old housewife who lives on the fourth storey, was in her living room when Miss Kamalia stopped at her flat to ask if there were any Chinese families with a young daughter living on that storey.

BLOOD

Said the housewife, who declined to be named: "I ran downstairs thinking it could be the daughter of a family living on my floor. When I saw the girl, I recognised her as I have seen her in the lift, but I did not know which unit her family lives in.

"I saw blood on the grass nearby. The girl was lying on her side and seemed to have injured her legs. There was a bunch of keys beside her."

Miss Kamalia rushed downstairs again and this time, Madam Rashida, who also goes by one name, told her to look for the girl's parents on the sixth storey.

When she stepped into a lift, a Chinese couple holding shopping bags got into the lift. Another man also entered it.

Said Miss Kamalia: "The other man appeared very anxious and I guessed that he was looking for the girl's parents too, but he had pressed the button to go to the second storey. I told him there were no Chinese families living on the second storey.

"The woman stared at me, so I told her that a little Chinese girl had fallen from one of the units upstairs. Her eyes widened and she started to argue with the man she was with."

Miss Kamalia suspected that the couple could be the girl's parents. She got out the lift on the third storey and walked downstairs.

"I went back to where the girl was and, a few minutes later, the same couple went rushing up to the girl's side. They were not carrying any shopping bags this time."

The mother of the girl had cried out "my daughter" in Mandarin when she saw the girl on the grass patch.

Said the housewife: "The parents moved her to the concrete floor of the void deck but we told them not to move the girl further until the ambulance arrived.

"The girl kept tapping her stomach and told her mother in Mandarin that it was very painful."

The housewife, who has a son, five, and daughter, seven, said she was also distraught.

She said: "It broke my heart to see that little girl lying there in pain. When I looked at her, I saw my daughter as they are almost the same age."

A neighbour, Mr William Phua, 49, who lives on the sixth storey, said the girl's parents are from Malaysia and are permanent residents here.

He said the girl, who is lively and polite, always greeted him whenever they saw each other.

He said in Mandarin: "Sometimes when her grandmother takes her to the nearby market, she would run up to me just to say hello."

The couple were not home when The New Paper visited their flat on Sunday afternoon.

Police investigations are ongoing.

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